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ABC Launching Upgraded Video Player For Fall Season

ABC, the Disney-owned television network, launched its proprietary Web video player about two years ago, before any other had come to pass from competing broadcasters. And in that time, rival services have been created to deliver streaming video of full-length episodes of current and archival programming. Hulu and Fancast are two examples of startups born in the last 12 months or so that have broad ambitions for their founding companies. Yet it is somewhat surprising that, despite ABC’s greater tenure in the IPTV space, younger entities proved more adept at progressing new medium as it grew in popularity. Hulu itself has been well admired for incorporating features that allow for content sharing among viewers by way of embeds and social bookmarking and so forth.

Well, today ABC has revealed plans to spend the next several months doing some much need catching up, according to Andrew Wallenstein of Hollywood Reporter. In preparation for its fall season, the company is upgrading several features on its browser-based video player, incorporating a full-screen viewing option (for both SD and HD downloads), closed captioning, and what is likely the most requested feature presently absent from the system: “the ability to send video links that can be embedded on blogs and social networks.”

Numerous critics (yours truly included) have dealt ABC negative marks for maintain its independence on the Web insofar as its television programming is concerned. Questions as to why it hasn’t offered material up to Hulu viewers are regularly raised as new developments and collaborations in the market are announced. Yet ABC cannot be faulted to greatly for keeping bounds between its own operation and that of competing networks. In March, the company’s digital chief, Albert Cheng, reported that the health of its standalone effort is quite good, with substantial ad rates being secured. And if Nielsen Online is anything of a reputable gauge of market viewership, ABC’s ability to pull in some 8.9 million viewers in the month of April alone is rather commendable given the relative youth of Web-based television as opposed to traditional over-the-air and cable-based services.

ABC’s new player, which is based on technology created by Move Networks, will sport a redesigned interface with better navigation features. It is expected to be released as a closed beta in the summer. A public launch is slated for the days ahead of the network’s fall premier week.

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